Even though I had stayed awake for hours into the night and had a restless sleep, I was first to wake, with Jenna was still snoring in her bed beside mine. I was just lying there for a few minutes, trying to clear my foggy head, when I recalled last night. Joey. Should I tell someone? If I had to, it would definitely be either Luke or Jenna. Everyone else liked him too much, there was a possibility that they wouldn't believe me, say it was just a dream...Come to think of it, I wasn't even sure it wasn't just a dream. Finally, I decided to tell Jenna when she woke up and ask her what to do.
But I never got the chance to. Jen was still heavily asleep when Julie came in to call us to breakfast. I sighed and followed her into the living room, a very annoyed and zombafied Jenna bringing up the rear, yawning loudly. Joey was already there, seated at the coffee table and chewing on some pastry. He looked exeptionally calm and in caracter, so I guessed that he'd either forgotten last night or had a serious talk with himself and whoever he was working with. Or working for. Frankly, I wasn't sure what to make of the conversation I overheard. Was Joey the bad guy or just a bystander for the bad guy? One thing was for sure, he was still a gold digger, probably in this for some reward, and that didn't exactly put him on my good, trustworthy people list.
"Jessica, cheese chroissant?" I dived back into the present to find Sam was offering me some pastry. I nodded politely and thanked her with a small smile as I took the food and sank my teeth into it, suddenly feeling hungry.
Luke, Michael, Calum, Ashton and Joey had to spend most of their day at some final rehearsals and sound checks. As for me and the girls, we went out shopping. Sam was really excited to finally see London, although she seemed to always be on guard. I guess last year's bad memories hadn't quite let go of her. Julie was bursting with joy and dragged us into every shop that could even remotely possibly have anything useful for her wedding, constantly adding how amazing it would be if she could find pretty vases in England. Jenna had her own troubles in mind, usually avoiding Julie's lead and heading into music stores. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was out looking to buy Michael a gift, because she kept dropping hints about it. As for me, I'd seen every corner of London when Sam was at the hospital and I wasn't too much in the mood to spend. I was always hoping I'd get a chance to talk to Jenna alone and tell her about Joey.
To my disappointement, the chance never really sprung up. Calum called about an hour before the concert, saying they'd finished everything and were headed to Wembley arena and to meet them there soon. Dying to ride it, Sam made us all take one of London's famous double becker buses, which is why we arrived slightly later than planned. Ashton met us outside and led us into their dressing room. The atmosphere was pretty tense. Joey, I immediately noticed, was exeptionally nervous. He couldn't stop fiddling with his fingers, running a hand through his messy hair and bitting his lip. Michael came to his side, patted him on the back and tried to comfort him "Don't worry, we were all nervous before our first concerts too! But the trick is to imagine how the crowd'll cheer for you, how you'll do great and then the rest just comes naturally." he said, a broad grin spreading across his face.
"Five minutes." a tall, muscular man informed us, holding his hand up. The guys strode out of the changing room and we followed. A woman then came to escort us to our seats back stage, where we could clearly see the band coming out one by one and the crowd roaring at the sight of them.
I've seen them perform a hundred times by now, but at this show, I kept a closer eye on their every move, particularly Joey's. He kept to the back mostly for the first few songs, but seemed to have found himself soon afterwards. It was like a sudden flow of energy burst at him and Joey was suddenly up front, shredding solos, getting to his knees and jumping around; just like Michael does. The crowd was going wild, he was getting a lot of attention. Julie and Sam, of course, were cheering along with the fans. But Jenna and I weren't as energetic.
The concert ended a few hours later and the guys went off to see the fans and sign autographs, as they usually did. No one bothered to keep their opinion to themself when the four of us were back in the dressing room. Jules said that the show was brilliant and Joey fit in pretty well, to which Sam had agreed. But she started making side remarks about how he's a really nice person and we should do this more often and that dragged me over the edge. It wasn't Julie's fault, he came off as an actually really cool guy to me at first, too. However, knowing what I'd known, I wasn't going to keep my best friends from the truth.
"He's a lying user, that's what he is!" I burst, three pairs of eyes all landing at me "I heard- I overheard Joey talking on the phone with someone last night-"
I then told them everything that had happened as they absoarbed my every word. When I was done, the reaction was far from I'd expected. Jenna and Samantha were gaping at me, their mouths hanging open.
"What? I didn't see that coming at all! I just didn't like him because he was replacing Michael." Jenna said, mildly shocked.
But it was Julie, who was looking as calm and indifferent as ever, that really puzzled me. I stared at her, as if expecting a completely new twist to the story. Finally, she spoke, a hint of guilt in her voice "Well, since we're all confessing."
"Mandy called me the night she first saw Joey at rehearsals, you know, when you brought her." she started slowly, watching each of us intently "She said she thought something suspicious was going on and called me, knowing Jess would immediately try to interfere. But Mandy didn't want anyone exept for her getting into it, she told me she'd do some poking around and let me know as soon as she found anything. I'd said that she shouldn't bother, but she insisted it was purely for her conscience. The last thing she told me was to pretend I don't know anything. I guess I over-did that part with the whole 'Joey's so awesome' deal." Julie finished with a small, awkward smile.
Her words came as a shock, as if a huge boulder had just hit me. It took some time for the bigger picture to sink in and me to realise what had been going on that I didn't know about. Unfortunetely, there was no more time left for discussion; the guys came back and no one mentioned anything for the rest of the day.
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hey guys!
how are you all? it's heart warming that you're still reading my book, you're all beautiful and you mean so much to me!!! i love every single one of you xx
